There are many instances in drilling and producing oil wells where tubular goods are run downhole into a borehole. The individual joints of tubing, such as drill stem, must be threadedly made up to a specified torque in order to obviate the danger of any one of the multiplicity of joints becoming unthreaded, thereby dropping the lower string to the bottom of the borehole, and bringing about a condition which is considered a catastrophe in the oilfield. Several hours may be expended in making up a string of drill pipe, and for this reason, it is difficult to be able to subsequently determine or verify the precise torque applied to any of the hundreds of individual connections. Therefore, it is desirable to be able to provide a recorder device which accurately measures and records the magnitude of the torque applied to each of the connections; and furthermore, to be able to store this data on a minimum of recording or chart paper so as to be able to subsequently determine the torqued condition of any individual joint.
Furthermore, it is desirable to have made available a recorder which uses a minimum of chart paper and which includes a power source derived from the signal so that no attention is required, such as the winding of a clock or the provision of electric motors and the like.
It would furthermore be desirable that such a recording device be simple in operation, low in cost, easy to maintain, and foolproof in operation.